Friday, March 9, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.Saturday, March 10, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
What is it like to get an MRI? What are researchers learning from a colony of the tiny trap-jaw ants? What does "brain on a chip" mean? These are just a few of the questions that inquiring minds can get answered at the Beckman Institute Open House March 9-10.
The exhibits and demonstrations will be presented by Beckman Institute faculty, staff and students and are designed to give visitors an inside look at some of the research and projects being conducted at the Beckman Institute.
The Beckman Institute Open House is a biennial event, held in conjunction with the University of Illinois College of Engineering Open House.
The Beckman Institute is located on the University of Illinois campus at 405 North Mathews Avenue in Urbana, at the intersection of Mathews and University Avenue. Metered parking available in the parking deck across from the Institute. Schools, clubs, and other large groups are welcome.
Exhibits & Demonstrations PDF
First Floor
Biomedical Imaging Center
Atrium • All Day
Want to know what it feels like to get an MRI? Stop by this exhibit and you will get your chance in the Biomedical Imaging Center's head only Allegra 3T Mock MRI magnet. You can also see demonstrations of research projects conducted with human audience volunteer subjects. Other imaging equipment and Center resources will also be shown that outline specific functions and various ongoing research projects.
Imaging Technology Group Visualization, Media, and Imaging Laboratory
Atrium • All Day
The Imaging Technology Group provides the Beckman Institute and University academic and scientific communities with a wide variety of imaging resources that enhance their research capabilities. You can learn about a sampling of the research that happens in the VMIL, including: 3D data capture, visualization, analysis, and fabrication; advanced virtual microscopy; and animation and video production.
Shedding Light on the Brain
Atrium • All Day
Stop by this exhibit and learn about the cognitive neuroscience of human memory and aging as well as the development of tools for the non-invasive mapping of human brain function. One such technique developed by the lab is the event-related optical signals (EROS).
Chemical Imaging for Automating Pathology
Atrium • All Day
Although pathology is the ultimate standard in the diagnosis and grading of most human cancers, it is often subjective and may lead to errors in therapy. We are developing technologies that can provide accurate, objective and reproducible diagnoses based on ultrafast mid-infrared spectroscopic imaging. You can learn about this technology and see its potential in prostate, breast, colon, and skin cancer.
Bioinformatics for All -- with the Biology Student Workbench
Atrium • All Day
Bioinformatics is used extensibly in conducting research at universities, pharmaceutical companies, and government agencies. Learn how the Biology Student Workbench is bringing Bioinformatics into the Biology classroom of high schools and colleges — directly from the web to your computer — without the hassles of downloads, setups, etc.
WordsEye: An Automatic Text-to-Scene Conversion System
Atrium • All Day
In collaboration with Semantic Light, a small New Jersey venture, researchers are developing WordsEye, a system that automatically converts written descriptions of scenes into 3D graphical models. This exhibit will show you WordsEye, and highlight some of the complexities of this unique application of Natural Language Processing and 3-D Graphics.
Drugs, Exercise and the Brain
Atrium • All Day
In this exhibit you can test your motor coordination skills while wearing special goggles designed to simulate the visual experience of alcohol intoxication; see what a mouse's brain looks like while it is craving cocaine; and see a slide presentation of how exercise stimulates your nerve cells to grow and regenerate.
Stretchable Silicon
Atrium • All Day
Stretchable silicon is one of the hottest emerging technologies. You can see a video of how it works and you can play with an interactive museum piece that demonstrates the technology.
Making Connections: Industrial Design and Emerging Technologies
Atrium • All Day
Learn about an initial designing project that explored the daily life experiences of active elders. Students conducted ethnographic studies and begin concept generation with the goal to enhance the quality of the aging citizen. Once product opportunities were identified, emerging technologies being developed by Professor Rogers and his team were applied to the concept development and refinement.
Bioinspiration from Trap-Jaw Ants
Room 1005 • All Day
See the mechanics of tiny trap-jaw ants and how they use their oversized mandibles not just to capture prey, but to leap into the air. You can explore a multimedia station summarizing how these ants store and release energy, and how we hope to use this to inspire useful devices. A live colony of ants will be on display so you can view their strange habits in person.
Interactive Educational Materials for Teaching Nano Concepts and Learning Nanotechnology through Multimedia Visualizations and Simulations
Room 1005 • All Day
Visitors can explore interactive visualizations, simulations, and design projects developed for teaching students about the chemistry of metal, semiconductor and polymer nanoparticles -- including a project in which students design mixtures of biodegradable polymer nano- and microspheres to obtain a desired release profile for drug delivery applications. These interactive visualizations, simulations, and design projects illustrate various Nano Concepts defined by the National Center for Learning and Teaching in Nanoscale Science and Engineering.
Brain on a Chip
Room 1005 • All Day
This exhibit shows work that is at the interface between neuroscience and engineering; between biology and technology. By designing highly elaborate networks of neurons on top of microelectrode arrays, our main goal is to investigate the dynamic interactions that take place among living neurons in an attempt to unravel the intriguing mysteries of learning and memory. You can see how the knowledge gained from such studies can have a profound impact on the design of neural prosthetic devices in the hope of restoring vision, hearing, locomotion, etc. to people who have lost them as a result of trauma or disease.
Mechanical Force-induced MT1-MMP Activation Visualized in Live Cells
Room 1005 • Hourly
MT1-MMP is a membrane-tethered proteinase that belongs to the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family and has been shown to play a crucial role in cancer development. Learn about our development of a sensitive and specific biosensor based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) that detects MT1-MMP activities.
Investigate How the Spatial-controlled Micro-environment Affects Cellular Functions Visualized by FRET-based Biosensors
Room 1005 • Hourly
Microfluidic technology has been used to create spatial-controlled micro-environments. See how cellular functions such as migration have been visualized by FRET-based biosensors.
Location of Src Kinase Activation in the Cell Membrane
Room 1005 • Hourly
Get an inside look at research on the real location of Src kinase activation in a live cell membrane. Researchers will show you how they have modified FRET-based Src kinase biosensor with lipid raft or non-lipid rafts targeting signal.
Computational Microscope: Visualizing Nanodevices at Work
Room 1227 • All Day, Except 12 - 1 p.m.
See incredible 3-D images of: Molecular Water Pipes in the Human Body • Good Cholesterol • Viral Infection • Making Renewable Hydrogen Energy • Proteins that Wrestle DNA • Molecular Basis of Hearing • How Nature Harvests Sunlight • Transistors with Holes for Sequencing DNA.
Computer Vision and Robotics Laboratory Showcase
Room 1532 • All Day
Visit the Lab and you'll get an inside look at some of the latest technology being developed in computer vision and robotics.
Decoding the Aging Brain
Room 1624 • All Day
Visit the Productive Aging Lab and the Center for Healthy Minds to get an inside look at fMRI and how it is used to study the aging brain. You can also play games using our eyetracker, another one of our valuable research tools. Additionally, we will be showing "Aging Brilliantly", a video which highlights cognitive aging research at the University of Illinois.
Lower Level
Aviation Human Factors - Flight Simulator
Room B604 • All Day
Come fly in the Beckman Institute's Flight Simulation Lab! Learn about research projects that investigate the mental demands involved in piloting an aircraft. Tickets Required.
Imaging Technology Group Microscopy Suite
Room B606 • All Day
Ready for your close-up? Visit the Microscopy Suite and see some of the most powerful microscopes on campus. You can see demonstrations of the scanning electron microscope (SEM), which is the microscope used for the popular Bugscope. And you can also check out the fluorescence microscope, the atomic force microscope (AFM), and one of the laser scanning confocal microscopes.
CAVE
Room B650 • On the Half-Hour
Challenge your imagination while you explore virtual worlds in the CAVE. Tickets required.
Beckman Institute Driving Simulator
Room B668 • All Day
Test drive a vehicle used in perceptual psychology research. Tickets required.
Real-time Human-Computer Interaction
2nd Floor Bridge • All Day
Can a computer detect a shrug? Can it tell what your emotions are? Visit this exhibit and see how computer vision camera-based gesture recognition systems work, and watch a real-time human avatar and emotive text-driven, talking head animation.
How the Normal Ears Discriminate Different Speech Sounds in Noise, and Consequences for the Hearing Impaired
Room 2137 • 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Learn how researchers identify the perceptual features used by normal ears to discriminate several consonants in noise. After quantifying SNR-loss on a consonant basis for hearing impaired ears, you'll see how specific features can be amplified to improve the hearing impaired recognition of simple speech sounds.
Amnesia Research Lab
Room 2424 • On the Half Hour
Profound memory loss is a rare condition that has improved our understanding of how human memory functions. Join us for a presentation about the nature of amnesia and our lab's research, including a demonstration of our pioneering use of eye-movement tracking in the study of memory. Our test apparatus allows us to evaluate your memory of an image simply by watching your eyes.
Biophotonics Imaging Laboratory
Room 3412 • Hourly
New and novel imaging modalities in cancer research will be shown including: Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Nonlinear interferometric vibrational imaging (NIVI) and Coherent Antistocks Raman Spectroscopy (CARS), Integrated Microscope (OCM/MPM). In the Lab, you will also be able to see the imaging of live samples.
Visualizing and Manipulating Atoms
Room 3534 • All Day
Learn about nanoscale science, imaging carbon nanotubes and buckyballs, using a scanning tunneling microscope to look at atoms, self-assembly of nano-scale spheres, and computer chip lifetime improvement using deuterium.
Self-Healing Polymers
Rooms 3712 and 3736 • All Day
In nature, damage to an organism elicits a healing response. Researchers apply this concept to synthetic material design and have developed a self-healing polymer. Tiny capsules containing a healing agent are embedded in the polymer. When the material is damaged, the capsules rupture and release the healing agent. You can see a visualizion of the self-healing concept by live experiments and animated, award-winning ITG video. Extensive audience interaction is encouraged.
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